February 2011
Adapting to change BuildGreen caught up with tourism consultant Dr Jürgen Ringbeck, senior vice president at Booz & Company, to discuss the Abu Dhabi tourism industry and the changes it will have to make in order to adopt a sustainable approach
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ECO-LEISURE
BG: What are your thoughts on the Abu Dhabi government’s approach to sustainable tourism?
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Jürgen Ringbeck: If you look at the energy consumption rate of the hotels here, my guess is it is clearly beyond the benchmarks of the rest of the world. They don’t design green hotels, at least on a large scale, as it is more about building hotels quickly and ensuring that the capacity is there if needed. But I believe the government of Abu Dhabi has the ambition to do it right. Look at what they started to do some years ago before the global financial crisis with Masdar as well as big announcements on transforming from an oil-lead economy to a non-oil lead society. I think it is now about the next level of execution and connecting existing programmes across different industries. Tourism is one significant part of this cake and linking it to the mission of a sustainable society is next. This connectivity has to be kick started and events such as World Green Tourism 2010 have helped to kick start the process. They provide the government with more focus on the subject. My belief is that this government wants to make a difference; it is listening, investing money and really wants to learn.
the best-in-class operations ‘green’ does not sit on top of their agenda. It is more about making sure their operations are functioning and that the people within the service industry are offering a good service. The training has not really embedded a deep understanding of environmental
BG: Does the private sector take sustainability as seriously as some government authorities do?
The Grand Mosque is one of Abu Dhabi ‘s key tourist attractions.
Ringbeck: It is about the link between the developer and operator that has to be improved. The operators are often in execution mode and in order to execute
There is a lot of greenwashing across the sector, but tourists learn very quickly”